Home (March 17)

The first leg of our return flight home was a 9-hour flight from Singapore to Dubai.

After a civilized 90-minute layover in Dubai that gave us comfortable time to stretch our legs walking between gates, we were off on the nearly 14-hour flight to Boston.

Singapore to Boston was a total travel time of 24-hours but only a 12-hour change on our watches since we traveled through 11 time zones. 

Upon arriving in Boston, thanks to being registered in the Global Entry Program, we were through immigration and customs quickly.  Our car was waiting for us.  A little over an hour later, we arrived home tired, but happy.  It was a challenge to stay up the remainder of the day in an effort to get our internal timers back on local time.

Home-to-home the whole trip was well over 20,000 miles, making it, by distance, our longest trip to date.  Our longest by duration starts next January, but that is a blog for another day.

Singapore (March 16)

This was our last day in Singapore, ending with the beginning of our flight home. We decided to spend the morning at the Gardens by the Sea.

Our first landmark was the Marina Sands. 

To get there, we crossed the Helix Bridge.

 We passed the ArtScience Museum.

Across Marina Bay was the icon of Singapore - Merlion - at the entrance to the Singapore River.

At the Marina Bay Sands shopping mall, we ascended to the roof, descending on the far side of the building.

 We passed through the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Coming out the other side, we had a clear view of the Singapore Flyer.

We crossed Sheares Avenue on a footbridge and entered Gardens by the Sea.

During our last time in Singapore we had visited the Flower Dome, so this time we went into the Cloud Forest.  Both are touted as the largest column-free greenhouses in the world.

Is it real or is it Lego?

Back outside, among the 'trees', we decided to return to the hotel.

We passed back through the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, then watched the boats moving along in the 'channel' running the lower level of the mall. 

 

 We arrived at the hotel, admiring the statute in this elevator foyer.

Rather than go to the effort of ferreting out a different restaurant, we returned to Dolce Vita where we had a pleasant and leisurely lunch on the shaded deck. 

We collected our luggage, checked out and rendezvoused with the car ordered to take us to the airport.  The car they sent was too small, even though we had warned the service provider that we had a lot of luggage.  A bigger car not being available, Pam & I rode to the airport in separate cars, each of us chaperoning some of our luggage. 

During check-in at the Emirates Airline counter, we spotted a great mobile - Kinetic Rain.  It was mesmerizing, perhaps intended to tranquilize passengers such as ourselves about to set out a long flight.

Singapore (March 15)

We spent most of the morning disembarking the ship and moving to our room at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel from which we had a nice view of the center of the city.

Happily, our room was ready when we got there, so we were able to dump our bags and head out to a special luncheon at Ce La Vi at the top of the Marine Bay Sands.

From the Skypark we looked down an the incredible Singapore Botanic Gardens. 

A highlight of our trip was having lunch and spending the afternoon with Kristin Partridge Shields and her sons Ryan and Braedon.  (We did not get to see the whole family because husband Matt was in Houston, TX and their daughter Kate was on  a field trip.)

After a wonderful lunch and a terrible squinting-into-the-sun picture taken by our well-intentioned waitress, Kristin took us to her house.  From there we walked to Singapore American School which all three children attend.

We watched Ryan play rugby while chatting with Braedon about a computer app he was creating.  The five of us walked back to their home, where to boys did a quick turnaround in order to get to their Scouts meeting.  And it was time for us to return to our hotel.

After weeks of travel with shipboard acquaintances, today was a welcome slice of family life half a world away from home.  We enjoyed being stand-in parents/grandparents for the day.  We look forward to Kristin and her family returning to Rhode Island in a few months.

We had leisurely, delicious dinner at the hotel's terrace restaurant Dolce Vita. 

Well fed and ready for bed, walking back to our room, we admired the interior of the hotel.

Singapore (March 14)

Early in the morning, INSIGNIA wove her way through the congested anchorage, passing all types of vessels awaiting a berth at one of the cargo terminals. 

INSIGNIA headed into the Harbourfront Cruise Centre, passing the luxury, but rather odd looking condominium complex Reflections at Keppel Bay.

As soon as INSIGNIA cleared the channel heading into her berth, a bi-directional backup of ferry boats resumed their transits.

In the same berth at the pier we departed from on ROTTERDAM three years earlier was her sister ship AMSTERDAM preparing to sail on a similar trip. 

Although Singapore was our port of disembarkation, we did not have to do so until tomorrow.  And since we had been to Singapore before, we decided to goof off.  For the heck if it, we took the cable car to Sentosa, a large resort complex directly across the channel from the pier.  During the ride, we passed over both INSIGNIA and AMSTERDAM.  It was interesting to see their comparative size.

Sentosa was watched over by an oversized replica of Singapore's iconic lion's head Merlion.

Once on terra firma, we generally went where our feet and some intra-island cable cars took us.

From one cable car, we could see part of the anchorage we had come through in the morning.  Closer in, we could see some small islands near one of Sentosa's many beaches. 

Upon closer examination, we discovered that the islands were completely, and I mean completely, man-made.

This man was clearly having fun.  The propellant for the 'jet' pack on his back was actually water fed to it by the sled towed behind him. 

We spend a few minutes wandering through an enclosed nature garden.

Eventually we worked our way back to the cable car for the trip back to the Harbourfront Visitor Centre and INSIGNIA.